IIT Roorkee organized KHOJ 2017 for Uttarakhand

Roorkee: Technology Innovation and Development Entrepreneurship support (TIDES), the startup incubator at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in collaboration with Z Nation Lab, a Mumbai and Silicon Valley-based accelerator organized KHOJ 2017 Uttarakhand on 11th October 2017 at IIT Roorkee campus. KHOJ 2017 is a nation-wide start up competition in search of the next big idea from tailor-made entrepreneurs, educational institutes, government investors, corporates and business professionals.

The event was kicked off by Prof. Ajit Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee with a motivational keynote on the need for developing the startup ecosystem in UK region and the significant role of TIDES in order to support the startups within Uttarakhand and nearby region, followed by a panel discussion, fireside chat and extensive interactive discussions between participants and experts from the industry and academia including Prof. M Parida, Dean(R&D) and Prof. Manish Shrikhande, IIT Roorkee.

A total of 45 teams participated from the region including IIT Roorkee, UPES, DIT, Graphic Era, Thapar University, IIT Mandi and Delhi NCR. From these, 11 selected teams pitched their startup ideas in front of the experts from Z Nation Lab and TIDES Incubator, along with industrialist and Angel investors from the local ecosystem like Jumpstart.

Speaking about the event, Dr Sanjeev Manhas, Faculty-in-Charge, TIDES Incubator IIT Roorkee said, “It is a unique opportunity for budding entrepreneurs, a one of its kind event in Uttarakhand, where ecosystems of IIT Roorkee and Z Nation Lab have come together to support entrepreneurs in the region ”
Mr. Devanshu Mishra, founder of AEVA secured first place with his startup on an IoT based home automation system. The startups Zoyo and LifePage shared second position. All three winners will attend an acceleration program by “Z Nation Lab” in Mumbai for further support including mentoring, expert interaction, networking and pitching for angel investment on demo-day.

Ms. Neha Jain, Co-founder and Director at Z Nation Lab, said, “KHOJ is a nationwide initiative by Z Nation Lab to develop and revolutionize the start-up ecosystem in India.”

Mr. Vikas Garg, Chairman CII Uttarakhand in his keynote speech on startups ecosystem said, “Even today I dream with my eyes open, Entrepreneurs need to be a dreamer to become a Unicorn.”